Vous êtes ici

Comparative information

EurWORK's comparative information is based on contributions from the Network of European Correspondents within all 28 EU Member States and Norway. Comparative analytical reports provide an EU-wide overview of a selected topic, based on national questionnaires.

The right to free movement for workers within the European Union is an achievement. Nowadays, private labour market intermediaries – such as temporary work agencies and employment placement agencies – contribute to facilitating this labour mobility in their role as mediator between individual workers and organisations in need of labour. Some workers and vulnerable groups run the risk of being exploited by fraudulent agencies. This report examines how public authorities are currently regulating labour market intermediaries across Member States, highlighting the effectiveness or otherwise of different registration or licensing schemes. It also examines activities by social partners aimed at preventing the trafficking of labour. The overall aim is to contribute to the development of a best practice guide for public authorities to encourage better monitoring and enforcement of regulations deterring trafficking for the purpose of labour exploitation.

In 2014, Eurofound’s long-established observatories on industrial relations (EIRO) and working conditions (EWCO) were combined to form EurWORK: the European Observatory of Working Life. EurWORK gathers all Eurofound’s resources on working conditions and industrial relations and is supported by a network of European correspondents across all Member States and Norway.
Developments in Working Life in Europe 2014 is part of a series of annual reviews published by Eurofound and provides an overview of the latest developments in industrial relations and working conditions across the European Union and Norway. The Annual Review collates information based on reports from Eurofound’s network of European correspondents throughout 2014, complemented by recent research findings, including data from Eurofound’s European working conditions survey (EWCS) and Eurofound’s company survey (ECS).

This report describes the developments in collectively agreed pay in the EU Member States in 2014 and compares them to developments in previous years. While growth in collectively agreed pay in nominal terms declined, the declining growth of prices resulted in real collectively agreed pay increasing. However, the nominal pay increases remain relatively modest compared with those observed in the first half of the previous decade. Twelve out of fourteen countries with available national estimates reported higher real increases in 2014 than in 2013. The report also provides details on pay indexation mechanisms, central or major cross-sector agreements and pace-setting agreements that were in effect in 2014. Finally, it provides a summary of public sector wage developments. The situation in the public sector varies across countries, with 13 EU Member States reporting rather modest wage increases and others reporting a continuation of pay freezes in the sector.

The average collectively agreed weekly working time in the European Union of 38.1 hours did not change between 2013 and 2014. In both years, the working week also remained, on average, 30 minutes shorter than the EU28 average in the EU15 Member States, and more than 90 minutes longer in the more recent Member States. If the collectively agreed normal annual working time is taken as the pattern, full-time workers in the EU will have worked, on average, 1,707 hours (1,675 hours in the EU15 and 1,813 hours in the recent Member States) in 2014. Of the sectors of activity examined, the banking sector recorded the shortest average agreed normal working week at 37.6 hours and the retail sector the longest at 38.4 hours. Collectively agreed paid annual leave entitlements stood at 25.1 days across the EU. These were slightly higher in the EU15 countries (26.4 days) and considerably lower in the more recent Member States (21 days).

Violence and harassment are attacks on personal dignity, the right to equal and non-discriminatory treatment and often a person’s health. Workers affected by it feel insecure about their work; they are more frequently absent and may even be unable to work, with consequent impacts on productivity and corporate and public costs. Some national-level surveys point to a long-standing increase in reported violence and harassment. Certain European countries, such as the Scandinavian countries, have more coordinated, established policies on preventing and tackling violence and harassment. Awareness of the topic at the national level, its inclusion in legislation and the degree of the social partners’ involvement in policies and interventions all contribute to the effectiveness of policies to address it.

The growing participation of women in the labour market has prompted changes in the way European social partner organisations tackle gender issues. Their organisational and collective bargaining structures – historically dominated by men – have had to adapt to include gender equality issues. This report examines the extent to which gender equality is incorporated by the social partners in their organisations and in their policymaking at European and national level. It explores the differences between the priority given to gender issues between the social partners in different countries and the possible factors behind such differences. Finally, it examines the main challenges faced by the social partners when attempting to promote gender equality within their organisations and in the wider labour market.

This report examines employment opportunities for people with chronic diseases such as cardiovascular disease, cancer, chronic respiratory disease, diabetes, multiple sclerosis, arthritis and mental health problems in the EU28 Member States and Norway. People with a chronic disease may have a reduced working capacity and experience difficulty staying at or returning to work. The report looks at the prevalence of people suffering from chronic diseases, their employment situation, uneven distribution among occupations and sectors, and working conditions. It looks at policies and measures adopted by governments, social partners and enterprises to improve employment prospects and working conditions of people with chronic diseases.

Financial turmoil and the increasing globalisation of value chains have revitalised industrial policies in Europe. However, existing policy instruments need to be aligned to the realities of global competition and evolving technologies. The main questions to be addressed are: What instruments of industrial policy are currently used in Europe? What is the role of social dialogue and of the social partners in shaping them? How can social dialogue play a proactive role in the current landscape of policymaking? This report provides an overview of the involvement of social partners in industrial policies at national (all EU Member States and Norway) and EU level. It focuses in particular on forms of participation, industrial policy instruments and their impacts and recent attempts to introduce innovation in industrial policies. It also highlights some examples of sectoral industrial policies where social partners have played a significant role.

This report maps current developments in industrial relations systems in the central public administration sector across the Member States, covering all EU Member States except Croatia, which joined the EU in mid-2013. The report explores to what extent there is formal industrial relations processes within
the sector, including the organisation of unions and employer representatives, and the role of collective bargaining and consultation. It also examines the specific features of the sector in terms of both industrial relations processes and worker outcomes and charts reforms that have been carried out since 2008: changes in collective bargaining and in the balance of negotiation versus unilateral imposition of change by the employer, and the responses of trade unions. Finally, the report addresses the role of the social partners regarding the outcomes for employees of the recent austerity measures on issues such as wages, job security, working time and pensions.